Song of the Nightbird is a historical novel based on the life of Siki Toklanni, an Apache woman born in 1866 near Warm Springs, New Mexico. The description of life of the reservation and the area surrounding Warm Springs puts us there to witness the United States' ever-changing Indian policy and resulting intertribal disputes among Nana, Victorio, and Loco. References to Ussen, the Creator, offer a glimpse of Apache metaphysics. The heroine's childhood, puberty rites, marriage ceremony, and the roles played by her mother, Clee hn, and her grandmother, Zhee Kardn, tell us about the role of females in Apache society. When The People learn that the U.S. Cavalry is after them, Siki's parents go to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona and send their daughter to the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico with her grandmother. As pressure builds on Victorio and Nana, the Apaches flee south from Mescalero, hoping to take refuge in Mexico. The Mexicans, long plagued by Apache raids, set a trap for them at Tres Castillos and Victorio and most of his warriors are killed. Siki and Zhee Kardn are captured and shipped down to Ciudad Mexico where they are sold into slavery. The arrive at the hacienda of the rico who bought them, and Zhee Kardn immediately looks for ways to escape. The women settle into a domestic work routine that continues for several years. One day, Zhee Kardn sees her opportunity and steals a knife…, ISBN13: 9781881325857 ISBN10: 1881325857 Material Type: hardcover

Ken Bonnell